To Fall and Get Back Up Again
by jazzandbells
Summary: Bella goes to Italy with Alice, intent on saving Edward, but as she is on her way to the clock tower, she realizes something. Edward and Alice disappeared and Demetri takes Bella to see the Brothers, which is were Alice and Edward will be found. Do not own any of the characters, just the plot. All belongs to Stephanie Meyer.
1. Chapter 1

**So, this is my new story, and it's obviously a Bella and Caius one. I wanted to do something different, and this is it. It is most likely going to stay in Bella's POV, but there may be some instances where I switch it up and do someone else. Also, I'm not sore how long it's going to be, so please bear with me if it's a super long one shot.**

 **Summary: Bella goes to Italy with Alice, intent on saving Edward, but as she is on her way to the clock tower, she realizes something. Edward and Alice disappeared and Demetri takes Bella to see the Brothers, which is were Alice and Edward will be found.**

As Alice and I were driving along the winding roads of the Italian country side, it hit me. They left. All of them left me without so much as a good bye, and here I am, in a different country, practically on the other side of the world, trying to save the life of my idiotic, ex-boyfriend. I'm not entirely sure why he thinks he has the right to ask for his death when he's the one that left me. Broken. Alone.

The people that I had come to love as my family, just gone. Here one day, absent the next. Never to return, as per Edward's promise.

Why did I agree to this? Wasn't it supposed to be like they never existed? As Alice continued to drive, the more I thought on the words that Edward told me when he left me in the woods behind my house. Sure, I was still in sight of my house when he took off, but how did he not think that I wouldn't follow him? I get that he couldn't read my mind, but really, is he that stupid? Maybe being in the minds of so many teenagers doesn't help, or maybe Edward didn't seem to grasp that even though I had just turned 18, that I was still a teenager, in love. Or so I thought.

During the months that the Cullen's had just up and disappeared, as promised, I came to some startling realizations. I didn't like who I had become when I was with them. Edward and Alice especially. It's like they used their vampire lures on me, to bend me to their will.

If there was one thing that Edward spoke the truth of that night, it was that he never loved me. Once I came to that realization, I started to live my life. I became the person that I wanted to be. No more of this, Barbie Bella that I was turned into. I bought my own clothes, in my own style, not the fashion forward stuff that Alice always tried to dress me in. I learned how to ride a motor bike with Jacob Black, who I had known as a kid. I even went cliff diving, anything for an adrenaline rush. Jake and I had gone many times before, both alone and with the pack. Did I mention that Jake was a shape-shifter, and that him and his pack were protecting me from Victoria?

Ultimately it was Victoria that brought me to where I am now. Sitting in a stolen sports car, listening to Alice tell me that I would have to get to the clock tower as quickly as I could, because once the clock struck noon, it would be game over for Edward.

See, Jake and I were supposed to be going cliff diving, but the pack caught Victoria's scent, so he had to go join them. Now, since I had already gone cliff diving by myself, I thought I would be able to handle it. Had it been any other day though, I would have. Too bad there was a storm rolling in. Both metaphorically and literally.

It wasn't until I landed in the water that I knew I was in trouble. I kept getting pushed up against the rocks of the cliff. I felt Jake pull me out of the water, and by the time that I was coherent enough I was told what happened.

They didn't get Victoria, but she came close enough to the reservation that it caused two new wolves to shift. Leah and Seth Clearwater, the kids of one of my dad's friends. They were expecting Seth to phase, but not Leah. At the time of the shift, Leah was in the middle of an argument with her dad, and her shifting caused her brother to shift, and for their dad to have a heart attack. He didn't make it.

Charlie was helping with the funeral, and when told, Edward decided that I was dead and he needed to die too. All this because none of the Cullen's could keep up their side of the deal. No looking in on me, no keeping tabs. They existed alright, and it seemed that they were going to make me remember.

Alice ambushed me at my house, the phone rang, and then Jake opened his big mouth. After that, it was all a haze. Alice packing a bag, Jake phasing, leaving me on my own. Being manhandled into a waiting car and driven to the air port to catch a flight to Volterra, Italy. Home of the Volturi, the self-made rulers of the vampire world.

And that brings us to now. Me being shoved out of a still moving vehicle. The words: "Hurry! Run to the clock tower!" the only thing going through my mind. I caught myself just before I face planted into the ground, but I felt my wrist pop and knew that I was in trouble. But lucky for me (or unlucky depending on how you want to look at it), someone helped me off of the ground.

"Are you alright miss?" the person asked. A man by the sound of his voice. It was only too late that I realized that his voice was too smooth, too musical to be human. When I looked up to answer, I knew right away what he was. Dressed just a little to fashionably, and covered in a dark gray, almost black, cloak, was a vampire.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I mean, while it's not everyday that I get shoved out of a moving vehicle in a country I don't know much about, it seems that it's happened," I replied. Did I mention that while hanging around the pack, that I was really able to let my sarcasm go without being worried about being reprimanded for being un-lady like?

"If you say so. Can I help you get anywhere?" the vampire continued to talk to me. By this time the first gong of the clock started to ring out.

"Actually, there is. Can you get me to the clock tower before noon fully hits? I'm supposed to be trying to save someone from committing suicide. The faster the better," I said. "Only because if Edward Cullen wants to die, it'll be by my hands and not the Volturi's for breaking a cardinal rule," I added.

"What?" I think I broke the vampire. I mean sure, he's already pale, but whatever color he had retained from his human life just left him. I decided to humor him a little.

"Well, I know that you're a vampire, the red eyes kind of give it away you know. Not only that, but Edward Cullen is my ex-boyfriend, and I was dragged on this suicide mission to try and 'save' him," I told him, using air quotes. "Now, are you going to help me out or not?"

"How?" the stunned vampire asked. I think he was at a loss for words. I may have shocked the vampire just a bit.

"Well, I'm Isabella Swan, human ex-girlfriend to one Edward Cullen."

"Demetri Ivonov, of the Volturi Coven. Come, I shall take you the the two Cullens," he sneered, before leaning down and picking me up before running as fast as he could without looking non-human to the humans. "So, how exactly do you know of us?" he asked me.

In response, I flashed him my wrist. The one with overlapping bite marks, because what human would have markings like mine and still live to tell the tale. "I'd rather only tell my tale once, can we save it for when we are in front of everyone?" I questioned. "And what a tale it'll be."

"Edward and Alice Cullen have been taken before the Brothers, so I'll take you to them in the throne room," Demetri says as we come upon the clock tower.

"That's fine, and while we are in there, do you think that you can keep them away from me?" I asked as sweetly as I could.

"I don't see why that would be a problem." The poor thing was confused, I could tell. "We are almost to the throne room," he added. At this point, we had traveled to the far end of the alleyway by the clock tower, and down into a man hole. He's started to pick up the speed at which we were traveling, and it seemed like the closer we got, the faster he would go.

When Demetri finally slowed to a stop, we were outside a pair of ornate doors, at least twice as tall as me, and each door was at least four of me wide. I couldn't help but gape at them a moment. When I realized that we weren't going in the doors just yet, I looked to Demetri and saw that he was looking at me like he wanted to ask me something. I raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'what?' and all he did was shake his head before putting me back on my own two feet. With one last look, Demetri opened the doors and led the way in.

As soon as both of us were through the doors, they slammed shut. If every eye in the room wasn't on us before because of the beating heart that just walked into the room, they were now. I decided to take my chances on trusting this new vampire before me, even more so than I already have, and stayed behind him. If he was going to promise to keep me away from the Cullens, then that meant that he had to keep me from their sight as much as out of their clutches.

It seemed that I walked into one level of hell, straight into the next. After three, agonizingly slow beats of my heart, everything seemed to speed up. Edward with a roar, ran towards me, Demetri crouched low and started growling, and the doors slammed open again. By the time that things calmed down, Demetri had Edward hanging inches from the floor, one hand around his neck, and the other keeping me close enough to him to hold up on his promise of protecting me. Taking a glance around the room, Alice looked worried, whether for me or Edward, I couldn't be sure; the vampires standing along the wall appeared ready to jump into the fray. There were two vampires sitting upon what looked to be thrones in the middle of the room with an empty one off to the side: one vampire staring off into the distance, appearing for all intents and purposes to be daydreaming, the other was sitting on the edge of his seat, hands poised as if he was just finished clapping, with an excited expression on his face. The last seat was, by this point, being sat in by an angry blonde, who seemed like he would rather be anywhere other than the throne room, as Demetri called it.

These three vampires must be the rulers, the Kings as Edward told me, what seemed like years ago by this point, when in fact it was only months. The one in the middle, the excited one spoke then. "Demetri? What is the meaning of this? Why is there a human seeking your protection?" he seemed to ask more questions, but they either came at a speed which I could not keep up with, or a level in which I couldn't hear. There were gestures and looks in my direction, but nothing that I was able to catch or respond to in any manner.

I got tired of being ignored and shifted into what I was told was my bitch mode. Arms crossed over my chest, right hip popped out to the side, and left foot tapping. I wished that I was wearing a pair of shoes that would make an annoying tapping noise against the floor with each downward motion, but my coordination wouldn't have lasted long without my sneakers. Thinking about it though, these immortals with their fantastic hearing would be able to hear each _tap tap tap_ on the floor, no matter the type of shoes I was wearing. This thought made me grin.

After three minutes, I had an eyebrow raised. Two minutes and twenty-four seconds after that was when they turned towards me. I wasn't sure if it was because of something that was said during their subhuman level conversation, or if they just got tired of listening to me tap my foot, or even if it was a combination of the two.

"Are we done talking about the human as if she wasn't here?" I questioned once all eyes were on me. The vampire in the middle opened his mouth as if he was about to respond, but the one on his right, the blonde one who was late to this gathering started to growl at me. My eyes stayed glued to the one in the middle, the one who seemed like he was in charge, only after taking a quick glance to see where the growl was coming from.

"Apologies, Isabella," the middle man said. "It is...unusual to have a human such as yourself in this room and actually aware of what we are, and what it is that we're doing," he tried smiling, but the one on his right kept growling. "Caius, enough." It didn't sound like an order, but while the blonde stopped growling, he just turned a glare in my direction. It didn't bother me like it should have apparently, for the surprised looks I was being given spoke volumes.

"Oh, I'm sure," I muttered, knowing that every being in the room would be able to hear me with perfect clarity. Speaking up, I replied, "It's no problem, sire, but it seems that we have some issues to resolve. I can think of three off of the top of my head." I gestured towards Edward, Alice, the three kings, and myself.

"Yes, yes. First off, introductions! I am Aro, and these are my brothers, Marcus," the vampire to the left of Aro barely made any acknowledgment of the situation, just a brief flicker of his eyes to me. "And Caius," Aro continued with a gesture to the blonde on his right. If at all possible, he glared harder. I just ignored him and kept my eyes on Aro, waiting for him to say more, and he did not disappoint. "Isabella, if I may, you are absolutely beautiful. Edwards memories don't do you justice."

I raised my second eyebrow and moved my hand in a 'get on with it' motion, waiting for him to add something else.

"Now, I know what happened from young Edwards mind, but I want us to hear the story from your view point. You see, it's rare for this kind of occurrence to happen. Usually the odd human who comes here to save their vampire clings to them in fear of what will happen, but you don't seem to want to be anywhere near Edward or Alice. I wonder why that is," he mused, and I couldn't keep the faint smile off of my face.

"Well, it all started when I moved to Washington state, Forks to be more exact...," and from there I told the whole sordid love story between a human and an animal blood drinking vampire. Just before I got to the part where the Cullens were playing baseball, I made a gesture with my right arm, not even thinking that my shirt sleeve rode up just the slightest bit during the scuffle between Demetri and Edward. It was when the growling started that I realized my mistake. I tried to cover my wrist, but the bored vampire king was faster. Who knew that he was actually paying attention?

"Where did you get this young one?" Marcus questioned. "Better yet, how is it that you are still human?" he furthered, flashing my wrist to the room.

"What do you know about vampire style baseball?" At the looks that I was getting, I went on to explain. "It all started out fine you know? Just me and the Cullens in a field, in the middle of a storm, just playing baseball. Well, they were playing, I was attempting to watch, but when you move as fast as a vampire, it's just a little difficult. Anyway, it started when this coven of three vampires came into the clearing. James, Victoria, and Laurent.

"James was a tracker who liked to play games with his prey. Unfortunately that night, I became his newest obsession, the best game of cat and mouse that he'd had in a long time apparently. Alice and Jasper took me to Phoenix, Arizona where I lived with my mom before moving. I ended up escaping them while we were waiting for the rest of the Cullens to land in the airport so we could all meet up and figure out a new plan. I thought that James had my mother, and he said that he'd let her go if I found a way to escape my bodyguards and meet him at the little studio that my mom forced me to take dance lessons in. So I did." I stopped talking for a moment, too caught up in the memories, in the pain.

"I ended up coming away from that with my head cracked open, a badly broken leg, a few broken ribs, and the bite of a vampire. Of course, Edward refused to let me change into a vampire, so the masochistic little fuck decided that it would be best if he sucked out all of the venom that James left in me, in the process, stopping the transformation."

There were astonished gasps from everyone in the room. Stopping the change was unheard of from their reactions. "The pain of the change is bad enough on its own, and you decided that it was a good idea to stop her change? Introduce venom foreign to what was already changing her?" Aro asked. He got no answer, but at this point I'm not so sure that he was expecting one.

"The summer between my junior and senior years was good. I spent as much time with the Cullens that I could: shopping with Alice, listening to Edward play his piano, playing video games with Emmett. Normal _human_ teenager things. Anything that was considered too dangerous to do, the human wasn't allowed to partake. That included being around Jasper.

"By the time that my birthday came around, school had already started and I had every class with one, if not both Cullen kids that were still there. I was bombarded with attention all day on my birthday. Everyone knowing that I didn't want a party, and a party is what I got. I was coerced into going to the Cullen house that was decked out in more things than one human and seven vampires would need. Crystal plates, flower petals, candles. A cake that would feed at least fifty people. And then there were the presents; the presents that started the fall of what I thought was going to be my forever.

"Keep in mind the fact that Jasper is an empath, and blood lust is an emotion." I told everyone, looking around to see that more vampires had wandered into the room. Cullens included. I wasn't sure when they got there, as focused as I was with telling my story and with as much attention that they were giving me, I don't think that they realized that there was at least one member of the Volturi guard standing behind them. "I never blamed Jasper, if anything he was the least at fault for the entire thing. Him and Rosalie. They were the only ones who wanted to take care of me the proper way that these laws of yours dictate," I told Aro.

"Anyways, it was as I was opening a present that I got a paper cut. In a house full of vampires. Vegetarian vampires at that. From the paper cut alone, I think that I would have been fine. However, it wasn't just a paper cut that I got. I ended up being shoved backwards so hard that I ended up flying through the air and into the table full of crystal plates and bowls. Like I said, a paper cut would have been fine, but I ended up needing to get stitches along my arm because the glass got stuck in me. Three days later, it was over. Edward and I took a walk through the woods behind my dads house and with a metaphoric knife to the heart, the future that I had mapped out for myself was gone. Disappeared with five small steps into the tree line and a more one sided conversation that played off of each and every one of the insecurities that a teenage human would have in any relationship with a physically perfect human being." I had to pause then, between the memories that were being resurfaced and the dry mouth that I got from all my talking and Aro seemed to notice.

Seconds later I had water and a chair to sit in. Nodding my thanks to Aro, I took both gratefully. There was a disdainful sigh to his right.

"That night, in the tree line behind my dads house, I wasn't left. I was broken. Being told that the Cullens were moving, I could have dealt with. Had I been told that it wasn't safe for me to be around them and that was the reason why they were moving, it would have been hard to accept at first, but I would like to think that in time I would have accepted the reasoning and moved on. It was the 'I don't want you,' that started the break. Just a small little fissure that one can never really be able to see if it's there or not. The continuation of 'not good enough' and 'time is like a sieve, and heals all wounds,' started the fissures to get bigger, enlarging themselves to cracks. I could have lived with that, gotten a psychologist and eventually moved on I'm sure.

"But no, it just got worse. It was ultimately the 'it'll be as if I never existed,' that was the straw to break the camels back. How could anyone forget the existence of vampires when they had seen and done all that I had? How would I have been able to cover the fact that I had a huge bite taken out of my wrist? Should I say that it was a dog bite even though it's clearly in the shape of a human mouth? Or what about why it was—is so much colder than the rest of my skin? There were so many questions going through my head after Edward just ran off, like the coward he is, that I got lost wandering in the forest." I ended up explaining in great detail how I was found – in the very forest that I was told to never go in alone because of the monsters that lived there – by a shifter from the tribe just down the road. I went on to further tell them about my friendship with Jake and then my friendship with the rest of the pack, touching briefly on the two weeks that I went without my best friend because he turned into a giant wolf.

There were growls for that one, but I'm not entirely sure why. None of my wolves had done anything to these vampires, unless you count their plotting for any of the Cullens that they see.

"And that brings us to now. I jumped off of a cliff to experience cliff diving, got dragged to Italy because, well I'm dead now, right?" It was a rhetorical question, but there were over exaggerated nods in response. " I was shoved out of a moving vehicle, going who knows how fast, and told to run towards the clock tower to save the one vampire who just couldn't live without me. Because he wasn't doing that for the last six months. I ran into that one there," I pointed off handed to Demetri, " and I got him to bring me to see you three," I finished with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

There were growls all around me. The members of the Volturi were either growling at the Cullens, in the case of everyone bar Caius sitting in the throne to the right of Aro, (he was growling at me), and the Cullens were growling at the entirety of the Volturi while trying to weasel their way towards me. Once I figured out that they were making their way towards me, I immediately sought refuge in the promise that Demetri gave me. That he would protect me from the Cullens. He must have seen their intentions too, because one second I'm standing next to him, the next he has me pushed against a wall with himself standing in front of me.

The sudden movement caught the attention of everyone in the room: Edward and Alice look furious, Aro was curious, and Marcus was slowly becoming indifferent to the whole thing. He had his hand out towards Aro who seemed to being tutting under his breath, or only at a level that a vampire could hear. Caius looked like he was ready to murder, so I kept my gaze off of him for as long as possible, but my eye kept being dragged back to him for some reason.

"Afton, Santiago," Aro said, and all of a sudden, two vampires, one of them just barely taller than Alice but bulky, and the other was tall and muscular, were holding Alice and Edward in place while Aro and his brothers make their way towards where I'm standing. "Isabella, you are a brave woman with no sense of self-preservation," he added as soon as they got to me.

"I get that a lot. Mainly from those two," I gestured towards the pair of Cullens being held with an arm across their neck and both arms behind their back. It was a glorious sight. "What happens now?" I thought it was a simple question, and with all of the inquisitiveness I could show, my head tilted to the side, practically as an offering for any of the vampires in the room.

At the same time as both Edward and Alice yelled, "Bella, NO!" Caius was in front of me within a second saying, "You die," before he proceeded to bite me and start to suck my blood.

"Thank you," I told him before I went back to the numbness that I first felt when Edward first left me. There was growling from somewhere in the room, a collision of some sort with the vampires surrounding myself and Caius, causing him to pull away from me. I was grateful for someone in this messed up situation attempting to follow the laws that they had set for all of vampire kind to follow and either change me, or drain me.

While the vampires sorted out the issue of the collision, I felt cold arms pick me up and the wind through my hair. For a second, I thought that I heard a very vague "sorry." For some reason, I was able to feel the changes in my body as they started to happen, but I didn't feel as much of a burn as everyone made out to be terrible. To me, it just felt like a numb tickle, but that could have also been my emotional fog that I have going on to protect myself.

I'm not entirely sure how long I was changing; all I know is that when I woke up, I was cool, calm, and collected. I new that I wasn't alone in the room—my spidey senses were tickling. I sat up slowly and saw that there were seven people other than myself in the room with me. The only people that I recognized were Caius and Demetri.

"I take it I got turned then?" I asked, mainly myself, and not entirely looking for an answer, but I got one anyways.

"Yes, but Edward—in his attempt to save you—attacked Master Caius and was promptly ripped to shreds and burned," Demetri said. I immediately started to pout. I wanted to rip him to shreds and burn him, not have someone do it for me. While these thoughts were going through my head, one of the vampires that I didn't remember meeting (if I even did) held his hand out towards me. I think he thought that I would stick my hand in his. As if.

"Would you mind if I made the attempt at reading your thoughts?" asked the black haired vampire.

"Yes, yes I would. I don't want anyone reading my mind, thanks," I responded, remembering who he was now. Aro, king of vampires alongside brothers Caius and Marcus. "Ask again later," I added. There was a muffled snort from one of the vampires that I still didn't know, which caused my instincts to go into over drive. Without even realizing it, my body was in a crouch, and I was growling for all that I was worth.

Demetri and the unknown three immediately stood in front of the three kings, as if I would be attacking them. No, the only ones that I would attack would be the three that I don't know. There were undertones of a conversation being held between the kings that I heard, but didn't comprehend. At least not right away.

"You're the only one that she'll listen to at this point brother," Marcus said. I wasn't sure which of his brothers he was talking to, just aware of the fact that I would apparently listen to one of them. "Between the sire bond and the other..." he trailed off as if becoming aware that others would be able to hear him. Maybe he just didn't want to show his hand too early though.

"Enough." It was one word, but it stopped the growling that was coming out of me. The voice was smooth like butter and as sweet as honey, but the word was harsh. It was like Caius, the speaker of the one word, didn't want to say much of anything. He wasn't looking at me though, instead glaring at both of the dark haired kings. With my silence, the guards slowly positioned themselves back towards the sides of the room, allowing me to breathe easier. The kings seemed to have an almost silent conversation between themselves; only looks, sighs, some growling from Caius, and wide, blinding smiles from Aro. It ended with Marcus shaking his head, Caius growling and looking angry, and Aro clapping his hands, smiling like a shark. It wasn't trustworthy, that's for sure.

"Jane, Alec, Felix, Demetri." Their names were all that needed said. The small girl—Jane-looked towards Aro, nodded once with a glare at me, and was out the door. The male that was slightly taller than her, but looked similar followed behind. Demetri gave me a smile and pushed the big male out the door in front of him after a gesture from Caius and Aro. "Isabella," Aro crooned after they were out the door. Why will you not allow us to see if your gift has transferred over into your new life?" he continued.

"My mind is mine, Aro, and just because you seem to have a way to dig through thoughts, doesn't mean that anyone wants you to," I told him, not missing the smirks on the faces of both Caius and Marcus. Aro pouted a little at not getting his way.

"How will we be able to train your gift if we're not sure you still have it?" Aro continued, acting like he didn't have one of his pets try their gift on me. The girl who was just in here looked like she was itching to do something to me.

"I'm sure that you had one of your other pets try their gift on me without anyone being the wiser. If you want information then you can ask me like anyone else and take any answer that I give instead of seeing all of my thoughts. Have a real conversation," I responded. "Had I been asked what I wanted, I probably would have chosen death, but instead I now get to live for all eternity as a prisoner to never dying." As soon as the last words were out of my mouth, Caius stormed from the room. Aro looked after him with a sad look on his face before he followed. The only one left was Marcus and he too, allowed his eyes to follow the path that Caius took.

We were silent for a while before he gestured for me to follow him out into the hallway. It seemed that he was ready to start doing...something. "It's stated in the lore of our forefathers," he started, before pausing as if seeing where he should continue with what he was saying. "It's stated in the lore of our forefathers," he repeated, "that there will be bonds between vampires that aren't easily recognizable until after the blood is spilled. Do you know what my power is young Isabella?" he asked me. I shook my head no, because I was only aware of what Edward told me, that Aro had the ability to read anyone's every thought. "I have the ability to see bonds between people. It's by no means a good gift, but in situations of strife or even peace, it's still got its uses.

"When you walked into the throne room, your bonds hit me right away. The ones that stuck out the most though were the ones to Edward and Alice Cullen, and there was a third that at the time, seemed to have no recipient," he paused here for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "Some bonds are only recognized through taste, some through sight alone, or touch, or even scents, and because of that, the third bond that stuck out to me didn't fully come alive until Caius bit you, with all intentions to drain you."

"What do you mean?" I couldn't help but be curious. This was all new information to me, probably even something that the Cullen's didn't know, or if they did then they didn't share it with anyone. My guess is the latter.

"There comes a time in every vampires eternity that they meet their true mate. For some, it's an instantaneous thing. One look, or even sniff as creepy as that sounds, and it's like boom. I'm yours and you're mine. And then there are those that are not as straightforward. There is some recognition but it's only partial until that spark is found, usually through touch or taste of blood. This is usually the case when one is a vampire and the other a human, such as yourself and Caius," Marcus explained.

"Are you saying that Caius and I are mates?" I questioned, mostly in shock. There is no way in hell that that pompous ass is my mate. I mean there's no way. Just not possible.

I must have stopped walking when Marcus told me because I was jolted back into the present by a light tugging on my arm. He gave me a look with the next tug and we started walking again. I wasn't entirely sure where we were going, having never been here before, but I had this feeling that I could trust Marcus and so I followed behind him. He continued talking as if I hadn't said anything, "Most people believe that they only have one chance of finding their mate, but it's not just a one and done type thing. If by some chance they're mate died before they met then they'd have that chance of finding them again down the road. Most though, most don't wait for that opportunity, they just give up, especially if they had already found their mate and something happened to them." He looked to me to see if I was following, and when he saw that I was, he paused for a moment and he had a sad look of remembrance on his face. What was normally morose and depressing was lit up in a way, still depressing, but happy at the same time.

By this point in time, we had reached the same double doors that led to the room that started this all. They didn't open on their own this time, instead Marcus placed his hands on both doors and pushed, letting the doors fall open just enough for us to enter the room. Aro and Caius were seated in their thrones in the middle of the room, and before he left me to join them, Marcus turned and gave a sad smile. "I know it doesn't make much sense now, young one, but in time you will see that not everything is as terrible as what you were told. You will be happy with..." at this he was cut off by a menacing growl coming from Caius. A final pat to the arm and he was gone, back to his mono-face, sitting aloof like in his chair, not really paying any attention to what's going on around him. I knew that whatever happened, I would have an ally in Marcus.

"Ah, Isabella, you're finally here. Such a stunning creature, is she not brothers?" Aro stated. He made a gesture to someone behind me, and the doors closed. All of a sudden I felt closed in, but tried not to show it, not that it worked all that well. With the noise that the doors made, I jumped and quickly looked behind me before turning to face the kings again. "I'm sure you're hungry Isabella," there was a whimper from me, interrupting him, "so we had a treat flown in special for you," he added on as if nothing interrupted him.

I was confused for a moment and then I heard the heart beat. I had a feeling of dread over come me and I knew that I didn't want to turn around once the doors opened.

"Bella?" I knew that voice. I didn't want to know that voice, because I knew that if I turned around, I would see Charlie. I didn't want to turn around, I didn't want my dad to be here.


	3. Chapter 3

**Just a quick note here: I have most of this story already written out, but I'm making changes as I go along to make it flow better. Anyways, in my original writing of this, I originally had Caius as the one who was going to make Bella drink her fathers blood. As a test of course, and then I realized that it was probably not a good idea for a strong base for their romance, so I changed it a tad bit. Anyways, back to the story!**

 **Oh, and Charlie lives for now. Who knows what will happen to him later on though.**

"Daddy?" It wasn't supposed to come out as a question, but it did. Immediately I stopped my breathing, trying my best to not say another word. He took a step towards me, and I took one back. Away from him and closer to the kings. I was shaking my head, trying to get him to understand that he couldn't—shouldn't even—get any closer to me.

"Bella? Are you okay, honey?" he questioned, taking another step towards me before finally getting that he should stop walking. "Why won't you answer me, Isabella?" Uh-oh. He used the full name, and I knew that I was in trouble, but I couldn't respond. I kept opening and closing my mouth, trying to figure out a way to talk, but nothing was coming out.

I turned to look at the three kings behind me, to try to get them to see that I wouldn't eat, but I got nothing in return. Marcus looked disgusted with his brothers, and when he looked to me, I could see that he was sorry for everything that is happening. Aro had a look of excitement on his face, like he was watching a grand movie and couldn't wait to see what would happen next. When I turned to look at Caius, the last king, the one that Marcus claims to be my mate, I wasn't sure how to interpret his expression. It was almost like he was expecting something to happen, but he was also angry with what's happening. He kept glaring at Aro and then switching it to me, but it seemed to soften just slightly.

Charlie took another step towards me. "Bells?"

I whimpered, and in that one nanosecond, I breathed in fresh, succulent, pumping human blood. I don't know how I had such an aversion to it as a human. It smelt divine. I took a step towards him when it happened. Aro leaned forwards, waiting. Marcus jumped out of his chair and zoomed to be between my dad and myself, and Caius grabbed me from behind, putting his arm over my mouth. With my next breath in, I smelt nothing but spice, chocolate, and a slight tinge of Iron. I started to relax, and with Marcus instructing a vampire to escort my father to the waiting room, and to wait with him out there, I relaxed even further, almost slumped into Caius' arms.

In less than a second, Caius had me with him by his chair, neither of us were sitting in it, and by the time that Marcus joined us, Aro was gesturing for the rest of the room to vacate. "Such a marvelous show of strength, Isabella," Aro supplied. "Who would have thought that a newborn vampire would be able to resist such delicious smelling blood for as long as you did?"

"Was that necessary, Aro?" Caius questioned quietly, almost bored. He still held me to him, the hand that he had over my mouth moved to stay wrapped around me, resting on my shoulder, while his other hand stayed wrapped around my waist. It was almost intimate.

Aro looked like he was about to respond, but Marcus quickly spoke up, "What is your problem, brother?" I think that if Marcus had yelled, it would have been less scary than the calm he spoke with. While Aro's face didn't move a muscle, you could see the flinch in his eyes.

"I just wanted to make sure that Isabella was strong enough to resist certain temptations, after all, a Volturi has to be strong," Aro responded coldly. With his response, I tuned out of the conversation, not sure that I wanted to hear more of it. I looked down, hiding my expression because I knew that with one look, everyone would be able to see the tears that would never fall. There was growling behind me, and I felt Caius lift my head, turning me to face him at the same time.

The sound of stone on stone sounded, and as much as I wanted to turn around and see what was going on, Caius wouldn't let me. As soon as the sound was done reverberating around the room, it was filled with the same four vampires that were in the room with the three kings and myself when I woke up not too long ago. "You would risk any kind of bond you have with Isabella, just to make sure that she's strong, knowing that she woke from her change only hours before?" Marcus boomed, gesticulating wildly. I don't think that I had ever heard anyone move their arms like he was. Aro didn't say anything in response to that. "Demetri, have Heidi find someone for Isabella to feed on. Have them brought to the room that Isabella woke up in," Marcus ordered. "Stay with her father after too," he added on.

With a quick "Yes, Master Marcus," Demetri was out the door just as quickly as he came in the door.

"Felix," Caius intoned, and the big guy stood to attention. "Have Gianna get an apartment rented for Isabella's father. Somewhere in the city and as close to the castle as possible." I looked up at Caius at that, knowing that humans don't live after seeing what my father saw. I was going to question him on it, but he just shushed me. "Later," he whispered to me.

"Jane, Alec," Marcus said, addressing the two who look alike. "Make sure that the Cullens are still on the premises. We need to have a discussion with them." The two nodded before zipping out of the room, going who knows where to do the task that they were given. With a final glare at Aro, Marcus approached Caius and I and held out a hand to lead us out of the room.

The three of us walked down the same hallways that Marcus and I took on our way to the throne room, but this time I paid a little more attention. At least as much as I could with the pain of the thirst getting to me. I kept pawing at my throat as if it would get the pain to stop, but I knew that it wouldn't. As we traversed the halls, all was silent. Or mostly silent as I couldn't stop whimpering. The closer that we got to the room, the more I could smell the human that was brought this way towards the room that the three of us were heading towards.

I tried to speed up, but Caius' grip was strong enough to hold me back, especially when you add in the fact that Marcus was standing to the side of me that Caius wasn't occupying, getting ready to hold me down even more than he already was. "Patience," Caius murmured quietly. I did my best to nod, but it was more of a choppy up movement. There was no down, because at that point, we made it to an open doorway that had my meal in it. I fought my way out of Caius grasp and entered the room with a growl at both Caius and Marcus.

 _Growl. Hiss. Bite. Suck. Toss._ My instincts had taken over. I always thought that when I was finally a vampire, I would be with the Cullens, and with that, I would be drinking the blood of animals. When I finally came back to what was normal for myself for now, I wasn't disgusted with myself like I thought I would be.

Staring at the body of my meal, was...freeing almost. Like any chains that I felt were still tying me to a majority of the Cullens were released. Tensing at the sound of a throat clearing behind me, I turned to face both Marcus and Caius. "Are you well?" It was brusque, but it was what I was coming to expect form Caius. I nodded while looking down at my clothes. I couldn't help the grimace that came across my face. I was, not necessarily messy, but I wasn't clean either. The blood splatter look didn't exactly look good on me. "Come, we will take you somewhere for you to clean up," Caius added when he realized that I wasn't going to freak out on them. I nodded again and made to follow them, when Demetri showed up in the doorway behind the two kings with a slight bow.

"Masters, we may have an issue," Demetri started before two growls interrupted him. He didn't let that bother him though, as he continued on, "All but two of the Cullens have escaped." The growling got louder, but Demetri barely flinched. The three of them share a look before Demetri and Marcus take off and Caius gestures for me to follow him.

He led me down hallways that he's had years to memorize, but for me with never having been down any of these halls before, and I couldn't help but stop many times at some of the paintings and other displays that were lining them. I heard a sigh from the man that Marcus claims to be my mate, who was almost at the end of the hallway that we were in before I heard his footsteps approaching. Glancing up at him apologetically when he stopped behind me, I made to move towards where he came from when he placed his hands on my shoulders, holding me in place.

"The majority of the decoration that we have in the castle are originals," Caius started. "We have had thousands of years to collect many pieces of art that spoke out to us. When we have more time to spare, I will take you on a tour of the castle and let you explore to your hearts content." He looked down at me and caught my eye, I guess to show me how serious he was being, but what caught my attention the most was the painful attempt at a smile that he did. I smiled back at him and we turned to head the way that he was intending to go before I stopped him. "Let us get you some clothing to change into and a shower, and then we shall see what Marcus and Demetri have found."

x-x-x-x

Continuing on for a few minutes more, we finally came to a stop in front of a set of doors alone on one side of the hallway with a second set down a ways on the opposite side. Opening the doors showed a room large enough to fit at least three of Charlies house in, at least the downstairs portion. Right through the door was a longish hall that opened out into what looked to be a large sitting room. There was a giant television on the wall above a fireplace. Around that was a comfy looking leather sectional sofa. All in all, the room looked to be very lived in.

Ushering me towards a door off to the side of the sitting room, Caius opened another door that led to a large bathroom. It had a large garden tub, a stand alone shower, for some reason there was what looked to be a usable toilet in the corner of the room. I looked questioningly at Caius, but he was too focused on turning on the shower to see any looks that he was getting.

"I will have one of the female guards come and help you get dressed once you're out of the shower that way you don't rip through the clothing that you try to put on," he told me. "I will be waiting in the other room for you to finish. Take your time, but try not to take too long." With that said,he turned leaving the room and shutting the door behind me.

 _Well alrighty then_. With that thought in mind, I quickly made the attempt to take off my clothes without ripping them, but in the end I just tore them off. Getting in the shower, I felt more relieved and relaxed than I have in weeks. Letting the water flow over me, I felt my muscles loosen up. As quickly as I could, I washed and conditioned my hair, using whatever it was that was supplied in the bathroom. Rinsing as fast as I could, I washed all of the blood off of me and as soon as I stepped out of the shower, there was a knock on the door. As fast as the knock sounded, it ended and the door was opening and a head popped through. It was the same vampire that Marcus had remove my father from the room earlier.

She was tall, or at least taller than me, and she was blonde and beautiful, like most vampires are. With an easy smile, she introduced herself to me. "Hi Isabella, I'm Heidi, and I'll be helping you today." I just gave her a timid wave, she continued talking. "Master Caius had me pick out clothing for you, something that would be easy enough for your first year." She kept going, but after a few minutes I ended up tuning her out. She talked a lot. "Isabella?"

"Oh, sorry, I got lost in thought," I told her. It probably wasn't a good idea to tell her that she talked a lot. She got this look on her face, and I thought that I heard a short bout of laughter from the other room. "Did I say that out loud?" I asked meekly. Heidi nodded her head, and was about to say something but I apologized to her as a knock sounded to the outer door. By the time that a second knock to the bathroom door happened, I was dressed in a pair of comfy pants and a black tee shirt, Heidi was brushing my hair since I accidentally snapped a brush in half when I tried it. Too much pressure she said.

Pulling away from me for just a moment, she quickly opened the door and did a slight curtsy. I looked over and saw that Caius was in the door way, just staring. After a moment, he seemed to come back to himself before speaking. "Isabella, you will probably want to be present for this conversation, it's about your father."


End file.
